Abigail B Sussman
Biographic Data
| ID | 94346 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Abigail B Sussman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Abigail B |
| FAMILY NAME | Sussman |
| SIGNATURE | SUSSMAN A B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5333-558X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
More Correlations Signal Causation: The Effect of Correlational Scope on Perceived Causality
In the era of big data, an increasing amount of information is becoming available to business analysts and scientists. Statistical correlations between consumption patterns and individual conditions (e.g., health conditions) are frequently uncovered and reported in the media. However, many correlations are spurious, prompting the question of when consumers perceive them as reflecting causal relationships. Across eight preregistered studies, we de…
Consumers Prefer Products That Work Using Directionally Consistent Causal Chains
Products often aim to help consumers achieve desired outcomes such as increasing energy levels or removing fabric stains. These products typically work via rich causal paths. The current research suggests that the structure of these paths influences consumer judgments of product efficacy. In particular, sequential steps in these paths can evoke distinct directionalities—either increasing or decreasing variables in each step along the way. For exa…
The latent scope bias: Robust and replicable
The Role of Risk Preferences in Responses to Messaging About Covid-19 Vaccine Take-Up
Development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine is widely considered as one of the best paths to ending the current health crisis. While the ability to distribute a vaccine in the short-term remains uncertain, the availability of a vaccine alone will not be sufficient to stop disease spread. Instead, policy makers will need to overcome the additional hurdle of rapid widespread adoption. In a large-scale nationally representative survey ( N = 34,200)…
Self-other differences in perceptions of wealth
Does Knowing Your Fico Score Change Financial Behavior? Evidence from a Field Experiment with Student Loan Borrowers
One in five consumer credit accounts incurs late fees each quarter. Evidence on the efficacy of regulations to improve behavior through enhanced disclosure of financial product attributes is mixed. We test a novel form of disclosure that provides borrowers with a personalized measure of their creditworthiness. In a field experiment with over 400,000 student loan borrowers, treatment group members received communications about the availability of …
A Dragging-Down Effect: Consumer Decisions in Response to Price Increases
Four studies, across a range of domains, find a dragging-down effect in which consumers purchase fewer units of a product when a discount applies to more units. For example, consumers buy fewer peaches when each customer can buy up to three peaches at a discount than when each customer can buy only one peach at a discount or when there is no discount at all. In contrast to basic economic principles, this dragging-down effect implies that consumer…
How and Why Our Eating Decisions Neglect Infrequently Consumed Foods
This article introduces a novel distinction between foods as a function of the frequency with which consumers eat them, and investigates how this distinction influences dietary beliefs and decisions. It compares food types perceived to be consumed relatively infrequently (i.e., infrequent foods) to those perceived to be consumed relatively frequently (i.e., frequent foods). Across an analysis of archival data from a popular calorie tracking app a…
The effect of effects on effectiveness: A boon-bane asymmetry
Beliefs about how effective a cause will be at achieving possible outcomes are critical inputs into a range of decisions, from how to treat an illness to which products to purchase. We identify scope-the number of distinct outcomes a cause is known to achieve-as an important input into judgments of efficacy. We compare causes that lead to worse outcomes (i.e., banes) to those leading to improvements (i.e., boons). People believe that banes with b…
Financial product sensitivity predicts financial health
Recent research has aimed to understand how people consider financial decisions because they have important consequences for well‐being. Yet existing research has largely failed to examine how attitudes and behaviors vary as a function of the specific financial product (e.g., debt type). We ask to what extent people differentiate between similarly categorized financial products (e.g., debt or investment) as a function of their terms (e.g., intere…
Reconciling Compensatory and Noncompensatory Strategies of Cue Weighting: A Causal Model Approach
When forming a judgment about any unknown item, people must draw inferences from information that is already known. This paper examines causal relationships between cues as a relevant factor influencing how people determine the amount of weight to place on each piece of available evidence. We propose that people draw from their beliefs about specific causal relationships between cues when determining how much weight to place on those cues, and th…
Competence ratings in US predict presidential election outcomes in Bulgaria
Latent scope bias in categorization
Republicans Prefer Republican-Looking Leaders: Political Facial Stereotypes Predict Candidate Electoral Success Among Right-Leaning Voters
Previous research suggests that voting in elections is influenced by appearance-based personality inferences (e.g., whether a political candidate has a competent-looking face). However, since voters cannot objectively evaluate politicians’ personality traits, it remains to be seen whether appearance-based inferences about a characteristic continue to influence voting when clear information about that characteristic is available. The authors exami…
The Exception Is the Rule: Underestimating and Overspending on Exceptional Expenses
Purchases fall along a continuum from ordinary (common or frequent) to exceptional (unusual or infrequent), with many of the largest expenses (e.g., electronics, celebrations) being the most exceptional. Across seven studies, we show that, while people are fairly adept at budgeting and predicting how much they will spend on ordinary items, they both underestimate their spending on exceptional purchases overall and overspend on each individual pur…
Competence ratings in US predict presidential election outcomes in Bulgaria
The Exception Is the Rule: Underestimating and Overspending on Exceptional Expenses
Purchases fall along a continuum from ordinary (common or frequent) to exceptional (unusual or infrequent), with many of the largest expenses (e.g., electronics, celebrations) being the most exceptional. Across seven studies, we show that, while people are fairly adept at budgeting and predicting how much they will spend on ordinary items, they both underestimate their spending on exceptional purchases overall and overspend on each individual pur…
How and Why Our Eating Decisions Neglect Infrequently Consumed Foods
This article introduces a novel distinction between foods as a function of the frequency with which consumers eat them, and investigates how this distinction influences dietary beliefs and decisions. It compares food types perceived to be consumed relatively infrequently (i.e., infrequent foods) to those perceived to be consumed relatively frequently (i.e., frequent foods). Across an analysis of archival data from a popular calorie tracking app a…
A Dragging-Down Effect: Consumer Decisions in Response to Price Increases
Four studies, across a range of domains, find a dragging-down effect in which consumers purchase fewer units of a product when a discount applies to more units. For example, consumers buy fewer peaches when each customer can buy up to three peaches at a discount than when each customer can buy only one peach at a discount or when there is no discount at all. In contrast to basic economic principles, this dragging-down effect implies that consumer…
Latent scope bias in categorization
Republicans Prefer Republican-Looking Leaders: Political Facial Stereotypes Predict Candidate Electoral Success Among Right-Leaning Voters
Previous research suggests that voting in elections is influenced by appearance-based personality inferences (e.g., whether a political candidate has a competent-looking face). However, since voters cannot objectively evaluate politicians’ personality traits, it remains to be seen whether appearance-based inferences about a characteristic continue to influence voting when clear information about that characteristic is available. The authors exami…
The Exception Is the Rule: Underestimating and Overspending on Exceptional Expenses
Purchases fall along a continuum from ordinary (common or frequent) to exceptional (unusual or infrequent), with many of the largest expenses (e.g., electronics, celebrations) being the most exceptional. Across seven studies, we show that, while people are fairly adept at budgeting and predicting how much they will spend on ordinary items, they both underestimate their spending on exceptional purchases overall and overspend on each individual pur…
Competence ratings in US predict presidential election outcomes in Bulgaria
Latent scope bias in categorization
Reconciling Compensatory and Noncompensatory Strategies of Cue Weighting: A Causal Model Approach
When forming a judgment about any unknown item, people must draw inferences from information that is already known. This paper examines causal relationships between cues as a relevant factor influencing how people determine the amount of weight to place on each piece of available evidence. We propose that people draw from their beliefs about specific causal relationships between cues when determining how much weight to place on those cues, and th…
Financial product sensitivity predicts financial health
Recent research has aimed to understand how people consider financial decisions because they have important consequences for well‐being. Yet existing research has largely failed to examine how attitudes and behaviors vary as a function of the specific financial product (e.g., debt type). We ask to what extent people differentiate between similarly categorized financial products (e.g., debt or investment) as a function of their terms (e.g., intere…
The effect of effects on effectiveness: A boon-bane asymmetry
Beliefs about how effective a cause will be at achieving possible outcomes are critical inputs into a range of decisions, from how to treat an illness to which products to purchase. We identify scope-the number of distinct outcomes a cause is known to achieve-as an important input into judgments of efficacy. We compare causes that lead to worse outcomes (i.e., banes) to those leading to improvements (i.e., boons). People believe that banes with b…
Does Knowing Your Fico Score Change Financial Behavior? Evidence from a Field Experiment with Student Loan Borrowers
One in five consumer credit accounts incurs late fees each quarter. Evidence on the efficacy of regulations to improve behavior through enhanced disclosure of financial product attributes is mixed. We test a novel form of disclosure that provides borrowers with a personalized measure of their creditworthiness. In a field experiment with over 400,000 student loan borrowers, treatment group members received communications about the availability of …
A Dragging-Down Effect: Consumer Decisions in Response to Price Increases
Four studies, across a range of domains, find a dragging-down effect in which consumers purchase fewer units of a product when a discount applies to more units. For example, consumers buy fewer peaches when each customer can buy up to three peaches at a discount than when each customer can buy only one peach at a discount or when there is no discount at all. In contrast to basic economic principles, this dragging-down effect implies that consumer…
How and Why Our Eating Decisions Neglect Infrequently Consumed Foods
This article introduces a novel distinction between foods as a function of the frequency with which consumers eat them, and investigates how this distinction influences dietary beliefs and decisions. It compares food types perceived to be consumed relatively infrequently (i.e., infrequent foods) to those perceived to be consumed relatively frequently (i.e., frequent foods). Across an analysis of archival data from a popular calorie tracking app a…
The Role of Risk Preferences in Responses to Messaging About Covid-19 Vaccine Take-Up
Development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine is widely considered as one of the best paths to ending the current health crisis. While the ability to distribute a vaccine in the short-term remains uncertain, the availability of a vaccine alone will not be sufficient to stop disease spread. Instead, policy makers will need to overcome the additional hurdle of rapid widespread adoption. In a large-scale nationally representative survey ( N = 34,200)…
Self-other differences in perceptions of wealth
The latent scope bias: Robust and replicable
Consumers Prefer Products That Work Using Directionally Consistent Causal Chains
Products often aim to help consumers achieve desired outcomes such as increasing energy levels or removing fabric stains. These products typically work via rich causal paths. The current research suggests that the structure of these paths influences consumer judgments of product efficacy. In particular, sequential steps in these paths can evoke distinct directionalities—either increasing or decreasing variables in each step along the way. For exa…
More Correlations Signal Causation: The Effect of Correlational Scope on Perceived Causality
In the era of big data, an increasing amount of information is becoming available to business analysts and scientists. Statistical correlations between consumption patterns and individual conditions (e.g., health conditions) are frequently uncovered and reported in the media. However, many correlations are spurious, prompting the question of when consumers perceive them as reflecting causal relationships. Across eight preregistered studies, we de…
Psychology (11 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (9 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (5 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Advertising (3 works)